The Human, the Orchid, and the Octopus: Exploring and Conserving Our Natural World - Hardcover

Cousteau, Jacques Yves; Schiefelbein, Susan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1596914173 ISBN 13: 9781596914179

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2007

Synopsis

A deeply revelatory book about the incredible life and philosophy of diving pioneer, activist, and world renowned adventurer. Using his unique experience and insight, Cousteau presents a passionate and fact based call to arms to save the oceans and their inhabitants. (nat)

About this title

Review:

" Cousteau consecrated his life to teaching the world about marvels that are at once exotic to us and yet ordinary in the abyss of the ocean. Through his lyrical writings and his films that took your breath away, he placed the underwater world at the door of an audience as extensive as the oceans themselves. I always learned with him." -- Al Gore
" As this rich new book reminds us, Cousteau was utterly trustworthy, a figure, like Rachel Carson, moved by no desire deeper than to appreciate the world around, to share that love, and thus to protect it. He was the quintessential explorer... Cousteau divided his career between two tasks, equally necessary: getting people to marvel at the beauty of the oceans, and then pointing out how we were destroying them. It was as if the earliest explorer of the North American continent was simultaneously cataloguing its vast buffalo herds and watching them die... No explorer has ever been faced with quite such a dilemma, and Cousteau handled it superbly." -- Bill McKibben, author of "Deep Economy "and "The End of Nature, "from the foreword

"Cousteau consecrated his life to teaching the world about marvels that are at once exotic to us and yet ordinary in the abyss of the ocean. Through his lyrical writings and his films that took your breath away, he placed the underwater world at the door of an audience as extensive as the oceans themselves. I always learned with him."-Al Gore
"As this rich new book reminds us, Cousteau was utterly trustworthy, a figure, like Rachel Carson, moved by no desire deeper than to appreciate the world around, to share that love, and thus to protect it. He was the quintessential explorer...Cousteau divided his career between two tasks, equally necessary: getting people to marvel at the beauty of the oceans, and then pointing out how we were destroying them. It was as if the earliest explorer of the North American continent was simultaneously cataloguing its vast buffalo herds and watching them die...No explorer has ever been faced with quite such a dilemma, and Cousteau handled it superbly."-Bill McKibben, author of "Deep Economy "and "The End of Nature, "from the foreword .,.".eloquent and at times almost poetical, especially in the eponymous final chapter. This worthwhile look back at the French scientist who taught us to love scuba diving and the ocean raises questions still highly relevant ten years later."-"Library Journal""" """Cousteau's reverence for life's miracles-embodied by the evolutionary wonders of the human, the orchid and the octopus-shines through in this eloquent testimony on the importance of pursuing higher ideals, particularly the preservation of the oceans and the natural world for future generations."-"Publishers Weekly"

About the Author:

Jacques Cousteau (1910-1997) was world renowned as an ocean explorer, filmmaker, educator, and environmental activist. He won three Oscars and the Palme d'Or for his films, was nominated for forty Emmys during the run of his TV seriesThe Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau, and wrote or coauthored more than seventy five books, includingThe Silent World, which has sold five million copies in twenty two languages. As director of the Oceanographic Institute of Monaco and a member of the advisory committee of the IAEA, he was active in the conservation and anti-nuclear-proliferation movements.Susan Schiefelbein has won the National Magazine Award and the Front Page Award for her cover stories on social issues. A former editor at theSaturday Review, where she first worked with Cousteau, she went on to write the narration for many of his documentary films, including winners of the Peabody and the Ace. She lives in Paris.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1596914173
• ISBN 13: 9781596914179
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 305